Live With Purpose

By: Ron Lagerquist

Most people live in a constant state of dissatisfaction. Why? The answer is clear. We are not fulfilling the calling God has on our lives. We are looking for fulfillment in the busyness and glamour of this world which for true Christians, creates only a greater dissatisfaction. We often prioritize time according to emotion instead of what really matters. Hours can be consumed in useless tasks, playing with grains of sand, when we can be moving mountains.

Live to the ripe age of eighty years old, and you have been allotted 700,800 hours in your life.

Subtract in hours:

233,600 for sleep
87,600 for preparing and eating food
99,450 for work
58,400 for entertainment
29,200 in the washroom
22,630 driving

What’s left is 169,920 hours of time to do something extra, something powerful that would define the gifts God has given you. The help only you can give because you are an important piece of the big picture. Powerful people have learned that time is an investment, and if used correctly, can pay off great dividends.

OK, so what do I do, give my boss two weeks’ notice, get immunized for malaria, read a book on how to recognize poisonous spiders and sign up to Africa Inland Mission? Maybe. Don’t be so sure where you would be right now if you had been true to the heart dream God planted in you at birth. To be fair, most of us are completely unequipped to pull off a Peter or Paul. It’s that immediately part of following Jesus which demands courage. I can’t even bring myself to tell someone at work I’m one of those born-againers they’re always making fun of let alone go to Africa.

Start small. Think of the things you know that should have been accomplished yesterday and get up and do them. It will feel great. Stuff that would only take five minutes to do, but no, we sit there thinking, worrying about it, as if we have no control over the simplest tasks. Doing the bills, sticking a load of whites in the laundry, taking fifteen minutes and do the dishes. Oh, they’re bugging you, sitting there like a mound of mom’s insults. You even say, "I really should do those dishes." Maybe you discuss it with a friend. Meanwhile, the dishes pile up. Procrastination is in its heart, is another type of selfishness. A worship of "my personal feelings". It takes courage to go against all-powerful feelings and do something you don’t feel like doing.

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them."

Joshua 1:6

Moses was dead. Joshua must now lead a million people into a land filled with milk and honey—and giants. No support groups, nor Anthony Robbins inspirational tapes to listen to along the long dusty marches. No one that would understand, only a dull duty that says I can do this because I believe in myself—no! I believe in God, my strength. Get up! Pull all the plates and cutlery out of the sink. Walk around your house seven times singing Amazing Grace, then fill the sink with warm soapy water and scour by faith. TV calls, fear begs for attention. Let it go! Exercise authority and do the dishes. Then move on to saving the world for Jesus. Victorious in small, victorious in big!

Fall to the ground and die. Die to everything which makes up the misery of doubt and a legacy of mummy wants Johnny to be just like Daddy. Die to who you think you are. Limitations that you believe frame your future. Not money, fame or fortune, just becoming the best that you can be. Do something that means something. No badges of honor, or accolades of praise, but lives that have been enriched by your touch. People who have been permanently affected by simply knowing you. Lost souls who found in your example a guiding light back on the narrow path of hope and healing. Finding yourself not at the end of an inner journey, but on the faces of people you have helped along the way. They become your claim, an invisible territory in which a free soul is able to traverse and finally come home.